You need to look at Afghanistans history a bit more closely before blaming it on 'foreign intervention'.
:hb:
Afghanistan, before the Soviets invaded, was a far more peaceful and organized place. It wasn't perfect, but at least it resembled many other 3rd world countries. When the Soviets invaded, the decision was made to arm a sect of extremists because they were willing to fight and die for what they believed. The war was long and ground on for many years. In the meantime, the Soviets set up an unbelievably corrupt government. The people who lived there could find no justice, could hold no property for long, and had no way of settling disputes. The only other group capable of providing any order at all was the Mujahedin. They had money and weapons from the West and they were fighting to kick the invaders out, so a lot of average men joined them for completely pragmatic reasons.
After the Soviets withdrew, the Taliban didn't immediately take power. The old tribal government system that existed before, attempted to reassert itself and attempted to rebuild the society. Women and girls could go to school and families lived pretty much with the same values they had for thousands of years. It's not perfect, according to Western standards, for example Pashtun men regularly buy little boys for sex slaves, but it was hell on Earth either. It was at this time that a friend of mine made a trip around the world and walked from Africa to China. He passed through Afghanistan and related to me that every family was warm and accepting of him. They gave him food and helped him with directions. No one tried to kill him, like they did in Africa. Afghanis had schools, clean water, and many modern amenities that came from the West or were left over from Soviet occupation.
In the West, a decision was made to keep using their assets and set Afghanistan up as a bulwark against the Soviets and the Chinese. More money and weapons flowed from the CIA to the Taliban and the fighting began again. Eventually, the Taliban took over the country and instituted a weird form of Sharia law. They closed down all of the schools, they forced all of the women into Burkas, they began to disappear intellectuals and anyone else who stood in their way. Eventually, they controlled the whole country except for a small part in the North. The Taliban enforced their interpretation of Sharia with fear and death and backed their rule with Western weapons and money. About the only good thing they did was eradicate the production of poppies. Opium production fell 96% under their rule.
In the mid to late 90s, oil and gas was discovered in the Caspian Basin and Western governments wanted to get it out of there and onto the market as fast as possible. Taking the oil out through the Persian Gulf wasn't a possibility because Iran was in the way. A decision was made to take it through the South, through Afghanistan and Pakistan, and soon negotiations began. Unocal employees entered into direct negotiations with the Taliban. Hamid Karzai, the current president of Afghanistan, was one of their spokesmen. The Taliban were incredibly hard to deal with. It was discovered that they hated the West as much as they hated the Soviets! Talks broke down and had to be restarted. Multinational corporations started losing money on the initial investments. The US government got involved and began negotiating with the CIA. Our government threatened to cut off our aid in weapons and money if they didn't comply. The Taliban dithered and pretended to comply just to keep the goodies flowing.
In the summer of 2001, talks broke down and aid was cut off. The Taliban was given an ultimatum, "accept our carpet of gold or receive our carpet of bombs." They flipped the finger to the West and ran all of it's officials out of the country. In August of 2001, an envoy told the Indian government that, "we would have troops on the ground before the snow flies." When September 11th happened and Bin Laden was implicated, the Taliban took him into custody. Washington demanded that he be turned over immediately and the Taliban were ready to comply. They asked for one thing, they wanted to see the evidence of his guilt first, because they didn't trust the West. The West sent bombs instead and the rest is history.
Getting him was never the West's intentions, though. We went in to settle the Taliban, just like we went into Iraq to settle Saddam. The West's assets needed disciplining and there was a larger vision behind it as well. 9/11 became a pretext to set in motion a plan that was started in the early 90s by a think tank known as the Project for the New American Century. All of the major officials in the Bush Administration, all neoconservative, helped to create this thing. In the 90's they sent a letter to President Clinton, urging him to action, but the President wasn't going to support this vision of a unipolar world that spread American hegemony. The neoconservatives knew their plan was unpopular and even wrote, "this plan has little chance of implementation, barring a new Pearl Harbor event."
Most people know nothing about the history of our intervention in Afghanistan. This war really was not needed and the Taliban didn't just seize power on their own. Most people who support the war see it from an ignorant black and white propagandized perspective. They don't know that we pretty much put the Taliban in power. They don't know that fossil fuels was the straw that broke the camels back and tried our patience to the limits. They don't know that the Taliban actually had Bin Laden in custody and were ready to give him up. The real history is important for the people of the West to understand as we contemplate our future in that region.
